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Mount Athos, the “Autonomous Monastic State” of Greece (2016)

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Re: Mount Athos, the “Autonomous Monastic State” of Greece (2016)

#51

Post by the_only_law »

Mizza wrote: post #41
the_only_law wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Who is stopping them again?

I am an atheist. I still want to monk. I want to monk in my own way, which would probably be growing vegetables, keeping chickens, and making open source software. I don't see how that's possible given the way society is currently organized - it requires periods of time spent to commercial toil, in order to pay landlords, taxes, etc.

Oh, ok. Religions seem to get a lot of legacy exceptions in society whether that be something like you described here, certain Native American peoples having freedom to use certain otherwise controlled substances, or like someone else mentioned a waiver for the “no women allowed” thing.

Re: Mount Athos, the “Autonomous Monastic State” of Greece (2016)

#52

Post by srcreigh »

There are exceptions. During the holocaust, Mt Athos sheltered Jewish families including women. Meanwhile, to avoid destruction from Hitler during the German occupation in Greece, they wrote to Hitler asking for his personal protection... which was granted

Also, the many female saints and especially the Theotokos (Mary) are prayed to often and are in an important sense present on the peninsula.

Re: Mount Athos, the “Autonomous Monastic State” of Greece (2016)

#53

Post by themihai »

boringg wrote: post #37
themihai wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As far as I know monastic life is not really work-free or worry-free. It's still a society with a lot of baggage. You are even expected to work for free and don't question the authority of the "upper-class". The only chance to be "free" would be to live in a very remote area, alone. That's a tough life but at least you don't have any answer to anyone.

Well you do answer to Nature but it isn't a person per se. I would imagine part of enjoyment of Monastic life is surrendering to those in charge of the Monastery. Good point about monastic life, it is always idealized but as with most things in the cosmos reality deviates.

I doubt that Nature says that only males are allowed to enter.

Unless you are a hermit and live in solitude (which is not the case on Athos) you still have to answer to the community members and obey the community rules which very are often made to favour specific members of the community.

Re: Mount Athos, the “Autonomous Monastic State” of Greece (2016)

#54

Post by jl6 »

From another article: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-36378690

"One of the traditions is that the Virgin Mary was blown off course when she was trying to sail to Cyprus and landed on Mount Athos. And she liked it so much that she prayed to her son that she should be given it as her own and he agreed," says Speake. "It's still called 'the garden of the mother of God', dedicated to her glory, and she alone represents her sex on Mount Athos."

This applies to both humans and domestic animals, except for cats.

"There are a lot of cats around and it's probably a quite a good thing that there are because they are good mousers. They turn a blind eye, as it were, to the fact that there are female cats," says Speake.

Like so many rules, it seems to be enforced strictly, except when inconvenient.

Re: Mount Athos, the “Autonomous Monastic State” of Greece (2016)

#55

Post by [deleted] »

necovek wrote: post #27
eatonphil wrote: post #2

The time zone issues sound fun: > A visit to Mount Athos also involves literal time travel. The monasteries there still go by Byzantine time, in which the day begins at sunset, not midnight, so the time zone changes literally every day. Visitors may have to set their watches back by as much as seven hours as they cross the border. And don't forget to change the date as well. Mount Athos never adopted the new-fangled…

It sounds irrelevant instead, and whoever wrote the article, is obviously being a bit too playful with words. Of course it's not "two weeks ago there", it's just that the date is different: it's as if you tried to use a different calendar system altogether — it's fine, you just need to convert back and forth. FWIW, a bunch of churches (Russian, Serbian, Romanian Orthodox churches) still respect the Julian calendar to…

[deleted]

Re: Mount Athos, the “Autonomous Monastic State” of Greece (2016)

#56

Post by rileyphone »

SllX wrote: post #42
necovek wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It sounds irrelevant instead, and whoever wrote the article, is obviously being a bit too playful with words. Of course it's not "two weeks ago there", it's just that the date is different: it's as if you tried to use a different calendar system altogether — it's fine, you just need to convert back and forth. FWIW, a bunch of churches (Russian, Serbian, Romanian Orthodox churches) still respect the Julian calendar to…

It’s a travel mag, not an investigative report. Playing with words and making bad jokes is like 90% of what they do and that’s just fine.

It's also Ken Jennings, so it checks out with his personality.

Re: Mount Athos, the “Autonomous Monastic State” of Greece (2016)

#57

Post by tut-urut-utut »

input_sh wrote: post #40
necovek wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It sounds irrelevant instead, and whoever wrote the article, is obviously being a bit too playful with words. Of course it's not "two weeks ago there", it's just that the date is different: it's as if you tried to use a different calendar system altogether — it's fine, you just need to convert back and forth. FWIW, a bunch of churches (Russian, Serbian, Romanian Orthodox churches) still respect the Julian calendar to…

It's also why Russia's October Revolution of 1917 happened on November 7th. The state officially switched a year later, and November 7th = October 25th in the Old Style calendar. Wonderfully confusing.

While we are at curiosities, I'd like explanation (please without googling) as to why Octoberfest in Munich, Germany always begins in September?

Re: Mount Athos, the “Autonomous Monastic State” of Greece (2016)

#59

Post by tut-urut-utut »

kgeist wrote: post #24
eatonphil wrote: post #2

The time zone issues sound fun: > A visit to Mount Athos also involves literal time travel. The monasteries there still go by Byzantine time, in which the day begins at sunset, not midnight, so the time zone changes literally every day. Visitors may have to set their watches back by as much as seven hours as they cross the border. And don't forget to change the date as well. Mount Athos never adopted the new-fangled…

>Mount Athos never adopted the new-fangled 16th-century Gregorian calendar; they still use the Julian calendar of the Roman Empire, which lags 13 days behind Russian Orthodox Church also still follows the Julian calendar. Majority of Orthodox countries switched to Gregorian only in the 20th century.

Majority of Orthodox Churches didn't switch to Gregorian calendar, some of them did, although some only partially.

Re: Mount Athos, the “Autonomous Monastic State” of Greece (2016)

#60

Post by joelmichael »

necovek wrote: post #27
eatonphil wrote: post #2

The time zone issues sound fun: > A visit to Mount Athos also involves literal time travel. The monasteries there still go by Byzantine time, in which the day begins at sunset, not midnight, so the time zone changes literally every day. Visitors may have to set their watches back by as much as seven hours as they cross the border. And don't forget to change the date as well. Mount Athos never adopted the new-fangled…

It sounds irrelevant instead, and whoever wrote the article, is obviously being a bit too playful with words. Of course it's not "two weeks ago there", it's just that the date is different: it's as if you tried to use a different calendar system altogether — it's fine, you just need to convert back and forth. FWIW, a bunch of churches (Russian, Serbian, Romanian Orthodox churches) still respect the Julian calendar to…

Being better aligned with astronomical events makes it more correct. The purpose of the calendar is to map the year, the orbit of the Earth around the Sun. The drift in the Julian calendar was not intended. It is a flaw.
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